What Really Happened
by Endless-Helix
Summary: Sometimes, in the lovely little story that is Naruto, there are plot holes, weird or irrational decisions, or gaping plot holes. This series of drabbles and one shots attempts to at least make sense of the madness. Rated T for language. Please R/R!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto.

Have you ever wondered about why Mizuki stole the scroll? Or why Kakashi passed Team 7 despite the fact that only one kid made a decent showing? Or what kind of crack the Sandaime was smoking not to see Oorochimaru's invasion coming a mile away? Or how the hell Iruka ran with a gaping shuriken wound near his spine? This tries to fill in some of the more glaring plot holes.

Chapter 1: Why Team 7 Passed at All

"Kakashi, you are going to have to take a genin team this year."

The Copy Nin's single eye began to widen. There was never a moment that he hated the council more in his life. Ever. He was sitting in the rather spartan chamber the Village Elders met in every week. His shaking hands rested on a rather crude, yet nearly 100 year old table. It was made by the Senju Clan, just before Konoha became a reality. The Council loved such relics. Right now, Kakashi was contemplating putting a _raikiri_ through it to illustrate how colossally bad an idea this whole farce was.

"Uchiha Sasuke is graduating this year," Homura spoke. Which really did explain everything. Kakashi was the last loyal active Sharingan. Dear little Sasuke-kun needed someone to walk him through using the Mirror-Wheel eye. To be entirely honest, it did all the work for you. You just had to use it.

"He will be on your team. It is your job to turn him into a powerful fighter. We need his blood," Danzou always good at putting it succinctly, "If you do not... you will be dismissed as an active duty shinobi."

Well shit.

They kinda had him by the balls. Normally he'd fail the whole team just so that he could enjoy the freedom he had as a Jounin instructor with no team, but this time, the deck was stacked against him. Getting dismissed meant that he wouldn't get any pension, and the Infamous Copy Nin was notoriously bad at saving money, or anything involving responsibility. Dammit, he was counting on that retirement benefit package.

"I accept," Hatake Kakashi muttered woodenly. His hand unconsciously stroked the lovely, lovely book he had in his ninja kit. Icha Icha Paradise kept him somewhat sane. All Jounin were known to have quirks. It helped to deal with the pressure on long missions.

"Good. You will need to build up the Uchiha's teammates just enough for them to assist him pass the first two parts of the Chuunin Exam in six months. But not enough so that they can pass into the finals. We don't want anyone outshining him. At all," Homura smiled like a cat that knew it had the mouse cornered and shivering in terror, "That includes any foreign shinobi. So you had better figure out a way to make him a strong combatant.

"Wha- Fucking _Demon_!" The head of the merchant guild sputtered when he glanced out the window. His wrinkled, flabby body quivered with rage. Every other councilor followed his gaze and had similar reactions, except for a few of the younger ones. Their exuberance led them to hide their chuckles as best they could while pretending to be incensed.

Someone had just vandalized the Hokage Monument. And the bit with the Third blushing as he read the Icha Icha Tactics was priceless. The Copy Ninja was particularly impressed with the the Fourth's reaction to the Third's perverted leer. It was so spot on it was hilarious.

"Well, uh, I better, y'know, go join the chase. I'll head out now..." Kakashi left when a couple of the Elders nodded and waved him off as they angrily whispered amongst themselves. Kakashi had no intention of joining the hunt for Naruto. He never did. To be entirely honest, The Copy Nin was very bad at dealing with grief, for a whole bunch of reasons.

Perhaps it was the way his dad committed suicide for a completely overblown incident, that was probably a political gambit to discredit the powerful White Fang. Perhaps it the way he'd been ruthlessly pushed through the ranks, to support his genius, leaving him isolated. Perhaps it was the way he'd lost his team in the war. Perhaps it was the way he'd lost his teacher, the Yondaime, the one person he'd been able to build a permanent bond with, to the Kyuubi.

Just one glance at the little blonde terror was enough for him feel the one pain in his chest he couldn't bear. Grief. The damn brat looked exactly the same as his father, and acted just like his firecracker of a mother, whom had ended up acting as a surrogate for the orphaned genius. Kakashi couldn't acknowledge the poor boy because of his own weakness. Honestly, he'd protect the kid with his life, but ask him to interact with the attention-starved child, and the Jounin wouldn't be able to do it. Damn brat and damn his genetics.

Of all the people, Kakashi was one of the few who could honestly say he understood where Uzumaki Naruto was coming from. Hatake had a thousand jutsus, more than enough for almost any situation, from delivering a message to wiping out an army. And the coward couldn't even face a twelve-year-old child.

Today would require a... vigorous... reading of his favorite series. In the privacy of his own home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto

Chapter 2: How the Hell Did Sasuke Even Survive the Valley of The End?

Naruto walked up to the Third Hokage's grave, after the Valley of the End. He was feeling some regret over what had happened. There wasn't a scar where Sasuke had rammed his Chidori. No matter how many times he ran his fingers over it, there wasn't even a ghost of a bump to show where Sasuke's hand had gone through his chest. Twice.

Did I do the right thing?

That was the question he kept asking himself. Had he helped his teammate enough for him to get what he wants?

"Hey old man, I think I fucked up. I'm not sure. We can't know for a few years, but things haven't gone smoothly since you died," Naruto spoke to the grave stone. The prankster paused to check for chakra signatures within earshot. No-one was around except for Hinata, who was stalking him again. He smiled. She was trustworthy. He didn't think she would hear what he was whispering anyway.

"Sasuke-teme ran away to that snake guy from the exams. I was part of the retrieval team. The mission failed. I failed, I think. See, Sasuke was being stored in this barrel thing and we had to get him back. All I would have had to do was make a henge'd clone and have it Kawarimi with the barrel thing. We could easily have gotten away cleanly. By the time those dumb asses that were guarding him noticed we'd already be at the gates of Konoha," Naruto crouched down and ran his hand down the side of the cool reddish stone.

"I chose to hold back and let Shikimaru do his clever little thing with my shadow clones," The blonde whispered.

"Then, later when I was fighting Sasuke, I did the same thing. See, I've got a weapon Sasuke can't counter right now. My toad summons. If I used those, I'm pretty sure that he would be back here, trying to claw his way out of a concrete cell block," A small smile moved across his face, "After all, how the hell would Sasuke's Chidori match up to a six-story toad and an army of shadow clones armed with rasengans? Even with his curse seal, I doubt he could do jack shit.

"I held back a lot in that fight. It finally came down to where I'd wore him down to near chakra exhaustion, and I was pretty beat up. We charged at each other, him with his Chidori and me with my Rasengan. I was planning on just using it to block his strike and kicking him in the balls. The idiot dove face first into my jutsu. He didn't have his eyes on, the dumb ass. Everything seemed to freeze. If I moved my Rasengan up a little bit, I would have taken his scalp off. A little bit lower and he would have lost his pretty face.

"If I left it in place, I would have taken off the entire top half of his fucking head.

"I let Sasuke go. I'm not entirely sure why. I think... I think that the expectations of the village ended up strangling him. I can relate to that, at least a little. Plus... He's like family. That stupid, headstrong little brother. You know, the one that's just smart enough to get in way over his head. Like Konohamaru, except that brat has more brains than Sasuke ever had."

Naruto stared at the small, humble resting place for a humble, yet powerful man. Suddenly, Naruto wondered about his protector's fight. Was he really physically incapable of killing Oorochimaru and sealing his soul in the Shinigami? Somehow the demon host didn't think so. It made for a good story, though. The fact was, you had to be human to lead. You had to care. That's one reason the Fourth was picked over Orochimaru to be Hokage. Orochimaru just didn't care about others in any meaningful sense. He didn't have friends; he had tools. In that moment Naruto pitied both Sasuke and Orochimaru. Both were so similar, yet so different.

"So I whipped a line through his Hitai-ate, right across the leaf symbol, showing him that I understood his choice, and let my Rasengan go as he drove his fist through my lung. I had to force back the red chakra and not let it heal me so that he thought I was unconscious. Now I'm left with the question, did I delay him enough? Should I have tried to get him to talk more? He's always had a need to gloat... Did I delay Sasuke enough so that he didn't end up Oorochimaru's new ass puppet?

"I'm kinda mad at you, but I don't blame you for letting Oorichimaru live. He was your student, practically your kid. You punished him, by destroying his arms. You could have killed him easily and solved part of the problem, sure it caused some trouble now, but ultimately, if we were ruthless bastards without remorse or guilt, we would become exactly what we hated.

"After all, if I said anything else, I'd be a hypocrite," A foxy grin spread across the boy's face, "I hope that Sasuke finds what he's looking for out there. Maybe that's all he wanted, freedom. Maybe he'll find enough power to kill his brother, though I doubt that revenge will do anything for him. I hope it does. He deserves a little happiness after all that shit."

Naruto stood up.

"What I really hope is that Sasuke understands someday just how much was sacrificed for him. Maybe one day Snake-boy will come around and see the light too. Who knows?"

* * *

**AN:** Yay! I got a review! Thanks yoyshaia-chan!

My reasoning with the council is a little weird, but bear with me. First of all, the Sharingan is Konoha's baby, per se. Not only was it the doujutsu of a founding clan, but it was one of the most feared eye techniques ever. Uchiha Itachi got it in his twisted little head to destroy it all, (actually, that would be a good plot hole to try to fill, as well as how the hell Itachi managed to do it...), leaving a screwed up little brother behind as he ran through the gates. The council needs Uchiha Sasuke to become a legend, so that he can start up the clan and protect it during its infancy. See, the other teammates, if they're too good, might distract away from that. Sasuke can't get the kill-counts to become considered an S-ranked threat if his partners always steal the glory. Plus, it's common knowledge that the dead last is always teamed up with the rookie of the year, and of course the dead last will never amount to anything...

So Please Read and Review people! Until next time!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Uchiha Massacre

Itachi felt dread as he plunged the sword his father's stomach. His sharingan memorized the details of the man's last expression, a pained grimace, as it had mother's tearful question, as it had Shisui's loving smile, as it had to many, many dead people. Now that count included everyone in the Uchiha clan, almost. A shiver ran down his back. He turned around, easily letting the corpse fall off of the short blade.

His cursed eyes caught sight of the one thing he'd truly feared since he'd embarked upon this quest, this madness. His little brother dropped the bookbag he'd been carrying, falling to his knees as he figured out what happened.

Traitorously, Itachi saw Sasuke's first steps play across his mind. Still, no matter the cost, this slaughter was necessary. Every. Single. Uchiha. Had. To. Die.

Even after sending out his tengu summons to deal with the few civilians, he still had a hundred odd ninja to deal with. If they were grouped together, it would have been a piece of cake. However they, like most of their clan, didn't get on well with others. Hardly surprising, but it made things difficult. Itachi had to be able to either survive around a hundred ninja duels in a row, or set a couple hundred timed traps in the weeks that preceded the massacre. It was obvious which one the master ninja chose. he only needed a date when the entire Clan was there. Why not for the celebrations of Founder's Day? Everyone had to be involved in the preparations. He'd get them just before the parade...

After the explosive tags were set, the poison gas bombs hidden, and the summoning seals scribed, Itachi was ready to destroy the Sharingan Eye. The eye that had ruined his life. That had ruined Shisui's life. They'd both agreed that this was a good act, wiping out the Uchiha clan, and Kakashi. That was one duel he decided to keep. Unfortunately Itachi was looking at his little brother now, and he could bring himself to kill the innocent little boy crying at him, begging him to explain.

Now, after all the sophistry he'd used to justify what he'd done, he couldn't give an answer. How could he explain the parasitic nature of the Sharingan? The way it would physically eat your brain, slowly driving you insane? The way it replayed the faces you saw die over, and over, and over in your dreams? The way the eye would whisper to you, urging you to become more vicious and inhuman as the battle progressed? That the Uchiha, in their arrogance, though they could control the demon in their eyes and consistently failed miserably? Would a six year old understand it?

"It was very important," He heard his mouth work, knowing the Sharingan had taken him over. He was just a ghost in his own body as the eyes he'd gained by killing Shisui were now in control. He watched his little brother look into his eyes and begin screaming. Itachi had tried to regain control, but he'd failed.

The Mangekyo had won.

"It was very important to test my capacity," Itachi's eyes ground out in their unspeakable monotone.

Sasuke kept on screaming long into the night. Every Uchiha was dead, but for two. Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Sasuke. Uchiha Itachi was just watching as his eyes destroyed everything in sight.

---

**AN:** Again, thank you for the review yoyshaia-chan! I'm glad you like my stuff so much. I hope the other reader(s) reviews soon, HINT HINT.

On the toad summons, I kinda get the sense that Kishimoto kinda forgot about them too. He was so wrapped up in the idea of the curse seals and the Kyuubi taking over, both of his characters becoming monsters to defeat their rivals... that it slipped his mind. Or maybe he needed it for a greater plan in his massive plot, but I must say that when I read the book over, I actually got out the red pen and wrote in the margins: Where're the toads? The places where Sasuke totally outclasses Naruto (physical conditioning, his eyes, and mid range combat techniques) are entirely negated by the advantages Naruto has (A-rank close combat technique, numbers thanks to a B-Rank Forbidden technique, huge chakra capacity, and A-S rank summoning). I mean, Naruto was easily handling Sasuke on the hospital roof until the 'genius' went for the Chidori. Just imagine if Naruto had used the Rasengan during his 'Naruto Rendan' or if he'd used the rest of his clones...


End file.
